


i need to save you, to save me

by marvelleous



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-03
Updated: 2017-02-03
Packaged: 2018-09-21 18:43:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9561908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marvelleous/pseuds/marvelleous
Summary: Daisy takes it upon herself to rescue May, the woman who has protected her since the beginning.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ddagent](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ddagent/gifts).



> this one is for kelly, who is THE BEST, and always supports me in my writing :)

She’s never seen him like this; the smile gone from his face, the sparkle in his eyes missing, a sense of sadness clinging to his every movement.

 

It is the look of a man with a broken heart.

 

Daisy recognises it. It was the same look she saw in her father when he murdered the love of his life. She remembers that moment with a heavy heart; the short amount of time she had spent with her parents are incomparable however tragically their story came to an end. She had spent her whole life searching for where she truly belonged, but finding her parents had not filled the emptiness within her heart like she had believed at the time. And losing both of them, however painful, had not torn her world apart.

 

It’s pretty close to coming apart at the seams right now though.

 

She struggles to hold onto hope for this world as she watches the strongest, most resilient man she knows crumble apart from within.

 

* * *

 

Daisy knows that at some point between her leaving S.H.I.E.L.D and returning that May had died. Simmons hadn’t gone into the details, but that’s how Radcliffe had gotten her brain scans and managed to create a replica of her. She wonders how Coulson had been then; the prospect of his best friend dying. At first she thinks that it surely had to have been worse than it is now. But then she thinks about Simmons, and her capabilities, and she thinks that even if she were dying, she wouldn’t have a worry she was under her care.

 

But May is out there somewhere, dead or alive.

 

And all they have with them is a robotic version that she had almost destroyed by blasting across the room.

 

Robot May - she can barely bring herself to call her-it that, was switched off by Fitz as soon as the Zephyr touched down back at base under Coulson’s orders. It is lying on a table in the lab, and Daisy cannot bring herself to walk down that corridor for fear or passing and seeing it- May.

 

The one time she does however, heading past to drop in on Fitz, she sees the lab completely deserted and Coulson just standing there and staring at it - her. His expression was unreadable, but she could see how tense he was, even just in passing. She wants to say “I get that” - to tell him she understands, but she doesn’t.

 

Lincoln. His death is still so fresh for her, but he’s not the first person close to her that she’s lost. She thinks back to Trip. To the other people around her that have died. The thoughts make her want to run away again, to hide so no one can see the hurt, the tears.

And yet Coulson just stands there.

 

She can’t imagine what he’s feeling right now.

 

May was - is - his partner. They’ve known each other longer than she has been alive. She doesn’t know whatever it is that has been going on between them, between Coulson and the Robot, between Coulson and the real Melinda before she disappeared and even longer before that, but she knows that she cannot envision one of them without the other.

 

* * *

 

He hasn’t given up. That much she knows. It’s been three days since their discovery of Robot May and still nary a whisper of information about her whereabouts. Mace is reassembling the teams, juggling different agents around to test their compatibility working together and they’re all storming out into the field once more.

 

Daisy watches from afar as Coulson suits up, ready to join in on the search. She’d caught a bullet in the calf yesterday, and Simmons has her strapped to a hospital bed until she’s “healed up. They’d argued to find a compromise and she’s back out in the field the moment she can run around without her stitches busting open. Of course, she slips out of bed the moment Simmons is called away to Director Mace’s office and makes it as far as the hallway before she is caught by Fitz.

 

It’s a happy coincidence really - she’d been hoping to speak with him.

 

She drags him towards the lab - he ambles slowly beside her as she hobbles along, ignoring the searing pain in her leg, focused on her own mission. She’s taking slow deep breaths by the time they arrive, sweat collecting between the crease of her brows.

 

“Why’d you bring me here Daisy?” he asks warily, hand around her arm to stop her from swaying on the spot.

 

“I need you to turn her back on.”

 

* * *

 

There’s an argument - a long one, about protocols and the apparent ridiculousness of her request and a hundred other things and she nearly gets dragged back to her bed when Simmons catches them but in the end, she gets her way and Fitz is muttering under his breath as he arranges the wires and begins powering the “Live Model Decoy”.

 

For once, Daisy is completely quiet as she sits opposite them, waiting for Robot May to switch on. In fact, the entire lab is eerily silent - the only sound her sharp intake of breath as the LMD’s eyes flutter open.

 

“Why am I here?”

 

It’s May’s voice, coming out of her mouth, but it’s not her.

 

Daisy can see the fear, if one could call it that, in her eyes. They’ve incapacitated her like they did with the Radcliffe clone, not that it was strictly necessary - robot or not, no one would be moving anytime soon after she had shattered their bones with the force of her quakes. There’s a million other questions it could have asked, and she understands the context between the words. Not “Why am I here in this lab?” but “Why have you not killed me already?”. Daisy looks to Fitz, who nods in confirmation that he’s disabled all forms of control the bad doctor had held over it.

 

“We haven’t found the real you - the real May yet.”

 

There’s a look of understanding that passes between them, and the contact between them is broken as it casts its eyes towards the ground.

 

“I am- I’m not her.”

 

It’s the way the voice sounds - so utterly broken, that makes Daisy want to reach out and comfort it before she remembers that _it_ is a robot.

 

“No, you’re not,” Simmons answers for her.

 

“These things I remember, these feelings, they’re not real.”

 

These last words are a whisper, and Daisy is so close to telling Fitz to pull the plug, because she can’t sit here and listen to this.

 

“They’re real, but you’re not,” is the only thing she can respond with before she slips off her stool and makes a hasty exit from the room, limping on her good leg, tears stinging her eyes.

 

“Daisy, you’re injured,” is the last thing she hears it call before Simmons has Fitz disconnect it.

 

* * *

 

May has protected her, since day one, since before their rocky relationship developed into what it is today. Phil Coulson is the person people think of when they hear of S.H.I.E.L.D., but Melinda May embodies the word like no one else.

 

She’s always protected people. In Bahrain, now that Daisy has learnt the real story behind it, at least Coulson’s version. When the Kree had come to try and take her away; in Afterlife when they’d fought; during Hive; so many times since their paths had first crossed.

 

Robot May is no longer under Radcliffe’s sway. There can’t be any difference between her and the real May now. She’s not her, but yet, she’s the same.

 

It’s the argument she uses as she talks Fitz and Simmons into repairing it.

 

It’s an argument she wins.

 

* * *

 

Robot May doesn’t speak, just follows her as she heads off to a quinjet.

 

“I’ve accessed her memories - Radcliffe didn’t build her to endure. She won’t last long out there,” Fitz had told her before they set off.

 

She didn’t need it to make it out alive. She just needed it to survive long enough to rescue the real May.

 

* * *

 

The flight is long and Daisy spends the time keeping track of her leads, sitting silently as Robot May flies them to their next destination.

 

Two hours in, she decides to try and strike up a conversation. As expected, it doesn’t answer her questions, eventually answering her with one short phrase that shatters her once more.

 

“The… the real May wouldn’t want you to know.”

 

The silence lapses on for another four hours before she tries again.

 

“How did Coulson know that you were a robot?” she asks completely without tact, and she sees it freeze, pausing before it answers her.

 

“He kissed me. And I betrayed him.”

 

* * *

 

Daisy knows that Coulson will be beyond livid when he returns to base and discovers she’s snuck off with Robot May. He’d given specific instructions for it to remain deactivated, but he’s not being rational here. He’s not thinking straight. He has so much fear and Daisy knows that she’s making the hard call this time.

 

He’ll forgive her when she returns triumphant with the real May by her side.

 

* * *

 

They do find her. She wants to fall to her knees and scream to the universe that she was right, but now isn’t the time. Robot May helps free Real May from her restraints, and she’s a dead weight in Daisy’s arms as they flee for safety.

 

There are armed men chasing after them and Daisy is half dragging May, half knocking back as many as she can. Robot May, is fighting them off, but looking back, Daisy can see her movements faltering as they near the quinjet.

 

The end is nearing, she thinks.

 

Within minutes they’re up in the air and Daisy has May safely secured on a row of seats, belts strapped around her body to keep her from sustaining any more damage as they soar through the air. It is only when she is confident May is secure that she moves to the front of the jet and slips into the co-pilot seat beside Robot May.

 

“Is she-?” it asks softly.

 

“Physically yes.”

 

It nods once, movements growing slower, and Daisy knows with a sinking feeling that it’s dying.

 

* * *

 

There’s a flurry of movement when the quinjet touches down at base, and Simmons has a team cart May off to be checked out. Daisy is surprised Coulson is not among them, but she’s informed that he’s due to arrive back in twenty minutes.

 

She shakes off the agents that try to detain Robot May and closes the ramp behind her, returning to her seat beside it.

 

“Coulson’s going to be back soon. Do you, do you want to see him before...?” she tries to choke back the tears that are running down her cheeks. This isn’t the Real May. She’s safe and sound surrounded by medics and _it_ is dying, if robots could die, fading fast beside her.

 

“This isn’t real. I’m not real,” it whispers, and Daisy cries harder, shaking her head.

 

Her sobs are the only sounds until it speaks up once more, for the last time.  

 

“I’m not real. But she is. And the feelings, they were real too. Make sure he knows…”

 

* * *

 

She has them burn it, the Robot, as soon as she knows that it is well and truly “dead”. She dries her tears and heads to the medical bay, where sure enough, May is sound asleep, hooked up to a dozen monitors and Coulson is sitting by her bedside, completely still.

 

She expects a lecture from him as she enters, but all he does is make his way to her and pull her into an embrace. She feels his body sag against hers, all the pent up worries and fears gone now that he has May back.

 

“Thank you,” he tells her, but she cannot take all the credit.

 

“It was the LMD that rescued her, that flew her back,” she informs him, and he just nods, expressionless.

 

“She’s gone now. She wasn’t built to survive. I had them burn her.”

 

It’s last words are on the tip of her tongue, but she can’t bring herself to say them, so she turns and leaves.

 

* * *

 

It’s been three weeks and physically, May has completely healed. Simmons gives her the all clear and they spar together like they did before Daisy ran away. But emotionally, there’s something missing. No one knows what happened during her time in Radcliffe’s “care” but she’s more sullen than ever and chooses to spend her time predominantly with Daisy.

 

Coulson has been holed away who knows where since May woke up and Daisy has no idea how to handle the situation. She tries to get May to open up to her, but May is not a feelings person so in the end Daisy has to resort to cornering Coulson instead.

 

She pesters him with questions like, “What’s going on between you and May?” “The Robot told me you kissed it. Is that what you’re afraid to tell May?” and a plethora of others.

 

When he doesn’t respond, she knows that she has to play her trump card.

 

“I was with the LMD before it... before it died. It wanted you to know that the feelings were real.”

 

She sees the moment his shoulders slump and the pain and hope mingling in his expression and she reaches out to him, a hand on his shoulder to show her support.

 

“Whatever it is that’s happened, is happening, May needs you right now.”

 

* * *

 

Healing takes time.

 

Daisy sits in her room, running a finger over the light pink scar that mars her calf. She stares at it for a moment longer, marveling in how much it has faded in the past month before pulling on her training clothes, ready for an early morning with her old friend, the punching bag.

 

She slips quietly to the gym, making a game out of being undetected by the rogue agents wandering the halls at this hour, honing her skills.

 

She freezes, backing up against a wall when she sees through a window that the room is already occupied.

 

It’s Coulson and May - they’re sparring and she feels a little mean for thinking this, but Coulson’s actually keeping up. May’s a freaking ninja and yet, he’s not flat on his back in seconds like she used to be when May was training her.

 

She watches, unseen, mesmerised by their movements. It goes on for several more minutes until May throws a punch and Coulson catches her fist in his hand, and pulls her towards him before wrapping his arms around her.

 

Daisy sticks her own fist against her open mouth to stop from squealing.

 

May rests her hands against Coulson’s shoulders and then they’re swaying softly to the music that plays only in their minds, gazing into each other’s eyes and Daisy is pretty much about to lose it. Until she leans up and he leans down and then they’re kissing - not just kissing but full on making out, swapping spit, hands roaming everywhere, in full view of anyone who could be passing by and Daisy flees, covering her eyes.

 

Yes, she’s all for Coulson and May having their happy ending; one might even go so far as to say she “ships” it, like Koenig told her about. But she does not need to see Mom and Dad, making out like teenagers. Gross. She needs Simmons to help wash her eyes out with bleach to remove the image from her mind.

 

Daisy is so busy being disgusted that she doesn’t notice that the scene disturbing her to such an extent ended the moment she turned away.

 

“How long do you think she’s been spying on us Melinda?” Phil asks as she rests her cheek over his heart, breathing in and out to the rhythm of it’s beat.

 

“I’d say nearly ten minutes, but I can’t be sure. I got a little distracted,” she responds with a smirk, lifting her head to meet his gaze.

 

“Well maybe I should distract you some more,” he quips, drawing a real smile from her this time, as he tilts her chin up a little higher with one finger and captures her lips once more.


End file.
